Mint Resumes – Job Search, Career Info and Resumes

Barbara Kiviat gets it – a year ago many of us viewed jobs as something we worked at while we waited for that killer idea we’d sell to venture capitalists.  No longer.

Your 401K has cratered, the house is ‘under water,’ your diamonds and gold don’t appear to be holding their value and it’s been a long while since you’ve fed your insatiable appetite for a trip to Hawaii.  Welcome to the recession.

Oh, by the way – you just might want to get serious about your job.  Whaaaaaaat?  You heard me – your job.  That’s j-o-b.

With all the typical asset classes dropping in value, look to your employer as your most valuable asset.

Stop that screaming – I can hear it all the way over here on the Left Coast.  Get serious and snuggle up to your job.  The day of double digit returns on investments has disappeared like the buggy whip.  Who knows when it may return.

Meanwhile, your surest source of riches?  Let me repeat:  it’s your job.

Now you can be smug about paying attention to Mrs. Chapin in 6th grade English class.  In Kiviat’s article in the 3/23/2009 issue of Time, she quotes experts who compare the income stream from a job to the interest income you might receive from a bond.  And education, flexibility, problem-solving ability and smarts coupled with social skills will pay you big dividends starting now.  In short, it’s nice to be nice.  And smart.  A prior post on CEOs Mulcahy and Merchant makes the point.

With people now saving 5% of their paychecks, you don’t have to be a genius to figure out that there’s more than just the lure of a paycheck to a job.  Not even considering the benefit side, a steady income also allows the recipient to provide their own private version of stimulus checks within their community in the form of buying groceries, clothing, gas, paying for dry cleaning and signing the monthly child care check.

If you need food for thought, consider this from brilliant career coach Jane Genova’s Career Transitions blog – of the 300 applicants for a cook’s job paying $25K recently, 9 applicants had a Ph.D.  Jobs are a very valuable commodity.

Read Kiviat’s entire piece here and change your view of employment.  You just gained an important asset – one that’s well worth protecting.